Sora Rail 95 
and presented by him to the Colorado College Museum, 
were slightly incubated. They are pale creamy-white 
with scattered spots and specks of reddish-brown and 
a very pale lilac, and average 1:25 x ‘90. Gale’s nest 
only contained seven eggs—it was taken May 27th, 
and the eggs were badly incubated. 
Genus PORZ ANA. 
Bill short and compressed, the culmen less than the middle toe and 
claw, nostrils linear oval, about the middle of the bill ; tail very short 
as in Rallus ; tarsus shorter than the middle toe and claw 3; toes not 
webbed. 
An almost cosmopolitan genus, but as now restricted, with only one 
North American species. 
Sora. Porzana carolina. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 214—Colorado Records—Ridgway 73, p. 187; 
Morrison 89, p. 167 ; Cooke 97, pp. 63,199; Henderson 03, p. 107 ; 09, 
p. 227; Warren 08, p. 20; Felger 09, p. 86; Hersey & Rockwell 
09, p. 114. 
Description.—Male—General colour above olive-brown, most of the 
feathers with black centres and very characteristic, dead-white edges 
to others ; crown, face in front of eye, chin, and a narrow throat-patch 
black; rest of the head and breast ashy-grey; lower-breast white, 
tinged with rufous towards the under tail-coverts; sides and under 
wing-coverts barred black and white ; iris brown, bill greenish, rather 
orange at the base in the breeding season, legs greenish. Length 6-75 ; 
wing 4:25; tail1-5; culmen -85; tarsus 1-25. 
The female is slightly smaller—wing 4:0; a young bird has no 
black or ashy on, the face or neck; the chin is white and the throat 
and breast washed with rufous. 
Distribution.—Breeding from Newfoundland and British Columbia 
south over most of the United States; wintering from South Carolina 
and the Gulf States to the West Indies and northern South America. 
The Sora is quite a common summer resident in Colorado in suitable 
localities, breeding from the plains up to about 9,000 feet in the valley 
of the Blue River (Carter), but chiefly in north-east Colorado. It 
has been reported from Boulder co. (Henderson), Barr, where is nests 
plentifully (Hersey & Rockwell), Lay, in Rout co., probably breeding 
(Warren), Colorado Springs (Aiken) and Salida (Colo. Coll. Mus.), and 
is probably common elsewhere. Felger found, on September 2nd, 1903, 
